The plaza at 555 mission street is one of the best in the city, thanks largely to this trio of sculptures, Moonrise, by Ugo Rondinone

The plaza at 555 mission street is one of the best in the city, thanks largely to this trio of sculptures, Moonrise, by Ugo Rondinone

Photo: John King

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One of the sculptures at 555 Mission

One of the sculptures at 555 Mission

Photo: John King

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The public plaza at 555 San Francisco is one of the city's best, thanks in large part to the goofy trio of surrealistic sculpture heads by Ugo Rondinone

The public plaza at 555 San Francisco is one of the city's best, thanks in large part to the goofy trio of surrealistic sculpture heads by Ugo Rondinone

Photo: John King

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3 head sculptures more than a nod to S.F. law

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San Francisco mandates that new downtown buildings must include publicly accessible space of some sort. Like any mandate, this one's had mixed results - but the best spaces make the effort worth the trouble. Here, alongside the 555 Mission office tower, a through-block plaza features artful benches, a living wall, easy access from the sidewalk - and a trio of mottled aluminum heads that keep an amiably surrealistic eye on the scene. Too much corporate art is innocuous abstraction, designed to be ignored. These guys always make me smile.